'earos' by robert potter 'design for all' competition shortlisted revealed

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‘earos’

‘earos’ by robert potter from canada is one of the 240 shortlisted entries from more than 5100 participants in our
recent designboom competition ‘design for all‘ in collaboration with seoul design fair 2010.

designer’s own words:
‘earos is a padded cushion that attaches to mobile phones, creating a soft, luxurious support for the ear.
its simple but versatile fastener allows it to connect to most phone models, and rotates on two axes so that
the unit can be quickly repositioned when not in use. the elegant, ergonomic design and soft, synthetic suede
material bring new joy to a universal human ritual – the telephone conversation.’

the earpiece creates support during phone conversations

the piece fastens onto the ear for comfort

andrea chin I designboom

sep 02, 2010

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Yeah, i bet the world need this now. Cushion your ear is tender but still “earos” collecting dirt if is not in use.

I see all result of design for all….
I guess it is not normal jury selection.
I thought that it was the result of it being dominant and inclining. more than 150 koreans in the 240 shortlisted.
If you can do simple establishment calculation,
How difficult to make this situation in accidental.
It is not joke. we can not try design contest for natinalism. I was very disapointed at designboom.

to union,
we are very happy about the results, and if you are disappointed or not,
we can only say that the results are honest!
as in every of our competitions, the jury could not view any personal data of the contestants,
because the process of selection is strictly anonymous.

it is true, the shortlist shows 60% of korean entries,
regarding the exceptional participation of korean designers :
this competition has been co-organized with the korean government,
for a very important korean event – seoul is the 2010 world capital of design.

celebrations at the seoul design fair this september will include a big exhibition
of the shortlisted entries of this competition.
for many young korean designers this is a mundane, glorious moment
and it is understandable
that they have tried their best to be part of it.
we think it is mainly due to the fact that for this occasion korean designers have worked harder
than others and have come up with more developed ideas.
another fact is that the competition has been promoted in many korean design schools
and universities and entire classes have participated
(30% of the total participants were koreans).

Thank you,birgit. Respect is shown in your polite answer.
And there is no basis with my entire remark, and if the contest which you sponsor is damaged, it will apologize to you.And I will believe your honest feeling.
Although I was a fan of the designboom, but I did not participate in this competition.It is because this result was expected.It was the number of the judges of Korean side.It is the whole and the judge of 28 judges’ inside and South Koreans is 18 persons.First of all, the number of the judges of 28 persons who are is unusual.It thinks ordinarily and control of an opinion hardly takes ten or more judges.It is unnecessary on the contrary.It is because I also have the experience which selected such competitions.Furthermore, if it says, several of the persons will be schoolteachers, such as a professor.Probably, their student has also challenged this contest so that you may say.and all names will be unsigned examined as you say.This competition will be very important for a South Korean so that you may say.But there is nothing that it is perfect that I want you to know. Ok, what kind of possibility is into there being 18 Koreans in 28 jurys?
and You realy believe it can be controlable? it is the method right as an international competition? I leaves this question as subject. I do not explain any more why I did not participate in this competition in this situation.
I will continue to watch your site.
Good work,

Ok i believe birgit/designboom, But it is possible up from korean 30% of the total participants to 60 percent of short listed..? I think it is quite small probability.. if you realy know mathematics. maybe korean students work hard as birgit says ummm.
and 28jurys judge in same time in same place ? If it is no, I realy diffcult to accept this result as birgit says. but im your fan. birgit

Yes, in this contest it was not designbooms way. I live in taiwan. I have korean freiends a lot. I know them.The set of many korean jurys may be request of korean government.. It is not responsibility of designboom in everything. but they shoud not acceot it.

we co-organize competitions since 10 years and we still think that no voting method is fair,
because no voting system can convert the ranked preferences of individuals into a community-wide ranking
while also meeting a certain set of criteria.

we struggled hard to convince THEM to reduce THEIR jury to the same amount of members as our jury,
but we did not succeed. unfortunately the number of jury members was not part of our initial contract among co-organizers but has been an argument for a week-long discussion…
(in every new contract that we’ll issue from now on it will be included).
BUT … in our defense I must say that the jury members have been published on the call for entries and participants did know who will select the winners, before entering to this contest.

there was no meeting. every jury member saw the entries online, completely anonymous entries,
in the order of submission. through our voting system every jury member gave points to every entry
and in this way a mathematical result determined the first shortlist.
in a second moment, a second preference among the shortlisted was expressed by the jury to determine the ranking and winners.

I was a jury member too – among the in total 15 koreans and 12 international jury members –
I saw all entries and have spent an incredible amount of time browsing through the various proposals and I must say that even I did not vote for every of them, more or less I agree with the first prizes
(I like them all and particularly appreciate the 4 first prizes!).
believe it or not, koreans were more motivated and worked harder this time!

the shortlist is interesting though. great ideas. thank you for organizing competitions, they are my favorite feature on designboom. me and my korean friends (we participated in this competition but are not among the shortlisted) we think that the theme itself and the way it was described (and the complicated awards) were typically conceived for korean people. I am french and I did not really understand what was meant with ‘design for all’ and I submitted maybe something too generic.
designboom, next time, please shorter instructions and better explained.

I agree with you about the fact that the subject of the competition was very hard to understand. now that I see the winners and shortlisted designs I realize that the design I submitted for the competition didn’t really fit and had no chance in the competition. I wish that next time the guidelines will be more clear so I don’t waste so much of my time and my energy on the wrong idea…

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